Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Scotland 26-29 Sep 2019

[elwhippy]

Not difficult with the soft conditions and celeb pin positions. I hope the wind blows tomorrow to set a decent challenge.

[jobin]

After 3 days leaders at -20. Even Luke Donald can shoot 64 so we know the courses must be 'not too difficult'. Of USA guys, only Finua in top 30, at -17. Agree, let's hope for wind, rain and sleet Sunday.

[Darth Putter]

> @elwhippy said:

> A sad reflection of what is was. The three man team international event was great and had some epic matches. Now we have celebrities and three courses set up for a ladies veterans event.

 

They must be doing something right. This is the second best field on the European Tour this year. (of tournaments not co-sanctioned with the US PGA Tour of course)

[Hawkeye77]

> @"Golf Scientist" said:

> > @gvogel said:

> > Gerry McIlroy has a really nice golf swing. The lad has a lot to thank to his old man.

>

> Couldn't it be that Rory taught him how to have a better swing than he had in the past? (Gave him the resources - access to elite golf monitoring systems, etc).

 

LOL ........ no.

[imakaveli]

Watching yesterday replay... what an event!

[iBanesto]

Interesting tee times.

 

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2019/tournamentid=2019082/teetimes/index.html

[OldTomMorris]

Rory's former caddy on the bag of Victor Perez.

[JonnyKrasnodar]

McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

 

https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

 

Thoughts on this?

[grm24]

> @iBanesto said:

> Interesting tee times.

>

> http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2019/tournamentid=2019082/teetimes/index.html

 

Some groups had two amateurs in them for the team competition. Some had 1 amateur. Some groups that began on #10 had no amateurs in them.

[nichho]

> @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

>

> https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

>

> Thoughts on this?

 

I'm not sure that I really understand his gripe. I would probably agree that the courses that he has played in Europe recently are not the toughest test, the three this week are what they are, links courses that can be relatively easy or brutally hard depending predominantly on the weather. Renaissance was a total let down but if he had played in the Irish Open the week before he would have had his desire well and truly fulfilled.

The biggest problem I have is him crying about his excellent scores not winning. But the winner on 22 under played the same courses as him, shot better scores than him and at no time did they deny him the opportunity to shoot a better score.

Perhaps the European tour can arrange for Rory to a higher handicap, perhaps he would win if he was playing off 9 or 10.

[JonnyKrasnodar]

I totally agree with you. It's not the European Tour's fault that the world no.2 can't score as well as the world no.184 (at the time) round St. Andrews however the timing of the latest outburst is interesting. All was well and good with the ET because they reached a compromise to allow him to keep his card playing less events than everyone else and now that he's played and not won he's not happy? Don't get it.

[Dave230]

McIlroy talking rubbish. It's a Pro Am tournament, Pebble Beach has similar scores. He chose to play the low scoring Renaissance in Scotland instead of the Irish Open which was harder. He hasn't played in many of the harder tournaments, he has barely played on the European Tour. While on the PGA Tour he plays in the premium events and doesn't play in many of the -20 or better tournaments. He doesn't have any facts to back himself up.

 

I think this shows that there is unfortunately too much player power on the European Tour and they are constantly pandering to the stars to the point where they're just calling the shots and doing whatever they like. Rory is getting Tour membership without doing what everyone else does, while they were too afraid to ban Sergio after he started digging up greens.

[tiderider]

he's ticked his distance advantage isn't giving him an advantage ... rory's an avg short iron/putter on his best day ... simple as that ...

 

if he wants harder courses, we can dial the ball back and reduce the club head size on the driver, though he still wouldn't be better at short irons and putting ...

[scott_Donald]

seems to me on instagram everyone loved the tournament except McIlroy, its weird he didn't have lots of fun playing with his dad and almost winning!!!

[Darth Putter]

> @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

>

> https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

>

> Thoughts on this?

 

My man from Ireland does...

 

[musclefront]

Rory is my favorite golfer but he comes across as an entitled dooosh here. play better bro and shut yer trap

[OldTomMorris]

> @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

>

> https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

>

> Thoughts on this?

 

I agree with others, I'm not really sure where this has come from. The Dunhill is a pro-am setup and it the same as its always been, he knows what to expect. Rory has also played AT&T a couple of times so he is aware that this kind of setup isn't exclusive to pro-ams on the ET plus this is links golf in Scotland in late September so they have to be cautious.

I suspect its frustration from Omega and BMW carried over but his comment - "I'm honestly sick of coming back over to the European Tour, shooting 15 under par and finishing 30th." - doesn't hold up at all. I expect a clarification sometime soon.

[OldTomMorris]

> @"Darth Putter" said:

> > @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> > McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

> >

> > https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

> >

> > Thoughts on this?

>

> My man from Ireland does...

>

>

 

Interesting stat but I'm sure some would make a case that the difference is down the quality of the putting surfaces and not the difficulty of the setup. Would need more data to get a fuller picture but its still a good stat.

[i*windows]

Like others I have no idea where Rory's comments come from, but the easiest way to make the layouts harder is to change the equipment, but this won't happen as the tours dont have the balls to do it. I remember watching tournaments in the 80's where players hit drivers and long irons and shaped the ball. They don't do this now :-1:

[iBanesto]

For a guy who is quite bland and cautious with his public image, McIlroy says some stupid things from time to time.

 

1. Talked down the importance of the Ryder Cup and how it wasn't important to him in 2009.

2. Complained about the weather at the 2011 Open.

3. Commented that he would not watch golf at the Olympics. Essentially dismissed the tournament.

4. Now complaining about the low scoring.

 

Allez Victor Perez!

 

[MattyO1984]

Rory doesn’t half put his foot in his mouth at times. His comments and the timing of them yesterday was extremely poor. To jump on TV almost as soon as he has finished a trash the tournament that he has just played in really does make me wonder how intelligent he actually is. In the past, I have thought that he had said a lot of things with an agenda behind them but yesterday was simply pathetic. I am trying to imagine which other Pro would be as stupid or brazen to come out with something like that and the only one that I can come up with is Michelson. Poor show Rory. Play better!

[OldTomMorris]

> @OldTomMorris said:

> > @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> > McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

> >

> > https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

> >

> > Thoughts on this?

>

> I agree with others, I'm not really sure where this has come from. The Dunhill is a pro-am setup and it the same as its always been, he knows what to expect. Rory has also played AT&T a couple of times so he is aware that this kind of setup isn't exclusive to pro-ams on the ET plus this is links golf in Scotland in late September so they have to be cautious.

> I suspect its frustration from Omega and BMW carried over but his comment - "I'm honestly sick of coming back over to the European Tour, shooting 15 under par and finishing 30th." - doesn't hold up at all. I expect a clarification sometime soon.

 

As expected he's issued a clarification, of sorts, on Instagram.

 

 

[OldTomMorris]

> @iBanesto said:

> For a guy who is quite bland and cautious with his public image, McIlroy says some stupid things from time to time.

>

> 1. Talked down the importance of the Ryder Cup and how it wasn't important to him in 2009.

 

The Ryder Cup is great TV spectacle but its ridiculously overhyped, still it would have been wise for Rory to keep those thoughts internal.

 

Rory's Ryder Cup record wont be what people remember. Different story for a player like Monty or Poulter but thats where Rory is different, people knew what he meant but some chose to distort it.

 

[Dave D]

I'm really disappointed in him lately. His comments here just seem foolish. par is just a relative made up number, perez played the tournament in the least shots, he won. Who's to say if the course was playing tougher he would have still won and rory would have finished 7 behind but on a lower score? Not exactly like Rory has a stellar record on fast narrow tracks.

 

I think most of this comes down to being a bad loser after finding out that him and his dad lost the pro am on count back due to the pro score, where fleetwood did him by 4 shots.

 

Not supporting the irish open, trying to get the scottish open to change dates and struggling to play the minimum european tour dates just reeks of self entitled doucheness.

 

Just my thoughts

[Hawkeye77]

I like Rory, but it seems like he's saying the ET would be more popular if he was in contention more - and maybe it would be, lol, but not the best thought to express.

 

Play better!

[Superbrit]

What kind of makes Rory's comments sound worse is how everyone else just loves the tournament and everything they say about it is just positive

 

And its not as if the Alfred Dunhill isnt always set up this way, cant expect ams with high handicaps to play Carnoustie in tournament conditions, especially if the weather properly kicked in

[LICC]

Rory criticized the European Tour for having course setups that are too easy.

[smashdn]

> @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

>

> https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

>

> Thoughts on this?

 

They all play the same courses.

[Darth Putter]

> @OldTomMorris said:

> > @"Darth Putter" said:

> > > @JonnyKrasnodar said:

> > > McIlroy has spoken out after his round saying that he is fed up of shooting well under par and not breaking the top 20 in Europe.

> > >

> > > https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/11823256/rory-mcilroy-urges-european-tour-to-toughen-up-course-set-ups

> > >

> > > Thoughts on this?

> >

> > My man from Ireland does...

> >

> >

>

> Interesting stat but I'm sure some would make a case that the difference is down the quality of the putting surfaces and not the difficulty of the setup. Would need more data to get a fuller picture but its still a good stat.

 

He's been doing a deeper dive in to the stats today.

[Darth Putter]

Ernie Els and Edoardo Molinari have come out in support of Rory.

 

https://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/news/tour-news/ernie-els-in-agreement-with-mcilroy-over-easy-course-set-ups-186618